It's Not Forever
by TheDarkWraith
Summary: Rogue goes home.


**IT'S NOT FOREVER**

"Wake up, sleepyhead. We're here." Rogue heard David speaking to her as he shook her gently. She opened her eyes and looked around her, trying to get in focus.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"That place where I said we'd be stopping by for tonight. Come on and take a look, Anne Marie." David got out of the Jeep and then walked over to her side and opened her door. Rogue undid her seat belt and David helped her out of the vehicle. A thick mist—_more like fog,_ her mind told her—shrouded everything around her.

"Watch your step, Anne Marie," he warned her. "The first couple of steps can be a doozy." She took a few cautious steps forward from where she stood, making sure she held on to the Jeep's bumper guard. She kicked a pebble and heard only the faintest sounds of contact against the hillside.

"Like I said, it's a doozy," David said, embracing her from behind. "This is one of those moments when I wish you could fly."

"David, I've got enough to worry about with my one talent," Rogue said. "Don't wish for any more."

"Okay." He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Let's get our stuff and I'll show you something."

They walked a short distance from where David had left the Jeep. Through the mist, Rogue thought she spotted something that looked like fire flickers.

"Is it my imagination or is there somebody else up here?" she asked.

"Nope," David replied. "Nobody else knows how to get up here."

"So where's that firelight coming from?"

"From there." David pointed straight ahead. Rogue followed the direction of his finger but couldn't see anything at first. But when she finally saw what he was pointing at, she couldn't help but be surprised. It was a building that looked like a cross between an Oriental temple and a European castle. To her eyes, it was larger than David's residence in the city. Despite its size, though, it seemed to be able to blend right into its environment.

"How in the world did that get there?" Rogue asked, still wondering if she was seeing things in the mist.

"Oh, some people built it a long time ago," David replied. "During the Gold Rush, I think. Colonel Fury sent me here for disciplinary action when I was just starting out with SHIELD."

"What did they do to you?" Rogue asked.

"Oh, this and that, mostly useful stuff," was David's vague reply. He took her by the hand and led her right up to the temple fortress' gate. He took out a ring of wrought-iron keys and used it on the door set into the right-hand gate. "Welcome to my other home, Anne Marie."

Rogue stepped inside. The place was almost eerily quiet. Firelight could be seen from the windows overlooking the courtyard but she could see or hear no one other than the two of them. They walked up to another set of massive wooden doors framed with iron. David used his keys to open them again. Now they were inside the temple itself. Again, Rogue had the feeling that the entire structure was bigger than it appeared to be.

"This is where they trained me," David told her as they crossed an empty space with a stone-tile floor. "If I were still here, at about this time, I'd be doing meditation exercises."

"I find it hard to believe you'd actually sit still for that long," was Rogue's comment.

"I didn't think I could do it, either," David said. "The quarters are this way." They went up two levels until they reached an entire floor with rooms—cells were probably the more appropriate term, Rogue silently told herself—that were either sparsely furnished or entirely empty. She counted ten rooms.

"Which one are we staying in, David?" she asked.

"See those two rooms?" He pointed to their left. "Those are the ones. Go on and check them out if you want. Here." He handed Rogue the key to both rooms. She ran off in the direction he indicated. He followed her, toting both their backpacks. When he caught up with her, she was at the window, looking out at the sight before her. She was awestruck by the thickly forested hills that stood shoulder to shoulder with where the temple stood. The mist didn't seem to be hampering her vision; this time, the mist seemed to be putting everything in a soft light. A flock of birds flew across her line of sight, almost like ghosts in the mist.

"I thought you'd like it," David said, standing beside her and putting his arm around her shoulders.

"It's beautiful," Rogue said and, before she could stop herself, she added, "It's almost like being back at the school..." When she realized what she'd said, she turned towards David. "I'm sorry, I meant..." She swore inwardly, wondering why she had to bring that up again when she was supposed to be enjoying his company.

He kissed her on the forehead and hugged her. "It's okay, Anne Marie. I wish I could spend time at Professor Xavier's school too, just to see how beautiful it is in the morning." Rogue hugged him back, realizing that he was doing his best to make things easier for the both of them when the end came.

After they'd squared their living quarters away, David took Rogue for what he called a nickel tour of the temple. Rogue learned that he actually did own the building and a considerable amount of the land upon which the structure stood. As it turned out, though he did his best to retain the original integrity of the temple fortress, he also had to renovate the place in order to make it function in accordance to his line of work.

"I don't know if Colonel Fury forgot all about this place," he told Rogue. They were at the topmost room of the temple, looking out the window at the stars and the hills and the forests. "I returned here when I was on leave from SHIELD. The monks let me stay here for a couple of weeks. Then one day, I wake up and everyone's gone. I still don't know where they went. And the funniest thing is that they left some kind of will and testament that said that the entire place and the land it was built on and the rest of the land around it was mine."

"That was pretty generous of them," Rogue said. "Considering how much of a troublemaker you must have been."

"I wasn't that big a troublemaker," David said with a chuckle. "Only maybe two out of three weeks."

"I'm sure they appreciated that one week's worth of rest," Rogue remarked. She shivered a little; David noticed it. He took off his coat and put it around her shoulders. Then he pulled her closer to him.

"Thanks," Rogue told him, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"You're welcome, Anne Marie." After a while, David asked: "You're really looking forward to going back, aren't you?"

"Well...to be honest, I miss the school..." Rogue replied."And I miss my friends...Storm...Peter...James—oops, I mean, Logan..." They laughed at that little joke.

"It's good to have people who care about you," David remarked.

"It is. And you're one of them." Rogue kissed him on the cheek.

"Thanks, Anne Marie," he told her, squeezing her shoulder softly. "Are you hungry?"

"A little. Why?"

"Tell you what—help me make dinner and then I'm going to give you a surprise."

"Another surprise?" Rogue said, smiling.

"Yeah," David said. He took her by the hand and led her back downstairs.

After dinner, David told Rogue that it was time for her surprise. He took out a large bandanna and blindfolded her with it.

"David Caine, what are you up to now?" Rogue held her hand to the bandanna that was covering her eyes.

"Come on, trust me," David told her. "And quit touching that—you might remove it and that would spoil the surprise."

"Okay...but don't let me fall!" she said.

"You won't, Anne Marie. And if you do, I'll catch you," he assured her.

A few moments later, he told her to remove the blindfold. Rogue looked around and saw that she was in a garden, most likely at the rear of the temple fortress. It was well-kept, in spite of the absence of people. The trees, shrubs, and lawns were neatly trimmed and the pond was free of too much surface clutter. There were fish and two pairs of turtles swimming around in the pond.

"Wow...this is beautiful," Rogue said. "You've really got a nice place here, David."

"The monks kept it beautiful," David told her. "I only got to help them out whenever I was on leave."

Rogue knelt by the edge of the pond, trying to coax the turtles to come to her. David just watched her, enjoying the sight of her feeling so happy. He was a lucky man and he knew it; he was in the right place at the right time. Rogue needed someone to talk to and to be there with her while she was going through a tough time in her life. But he knew deep down that this wasn't supposed to be for long and he accepted it. That still didn't stop a small sliver of pain from cutting through his heart when she told him over dinner a few days ago that she had decided to go back to the school and rejoin the rest of Professor Xavier's students. He understood why, of course—with the Professor gone, along with Jean Grey and Scott Summers, the X-Men needed to stand together so that the younger students would have an anchor as they went on with their lives. And now that she had voluntarily had her powers stripped, Rogue was in a unique position; she could perhaps provide a balanced perspective for both mutants—and metas in general—and their human counterparts.

Knowing and understanding all that didn't make it any less painful, though.

David sighed. _Nothing's forever anyway,_ he told himself. _That's why you have to make it all worth it while you can._

He Got up from the stone bench he was sitting on and walked over to where Rogue was. He picked her up by the waist and lifted her up.

"Hey! David!" Rogue cried. "What are you doing?" She held on to his arms as they spun around a couple of times. He sat down on the bench with her on his lap.

"David Caine, I swear—sometimes, I don't know what to think about you," she said, leaning against him and touching his face gently.

"How about this: I'm a guy with a kung fu temple for a house with turtles in a pond in the backyard," he told her.

Rogue laughed and kissed him on the cheek. Then, in a soft voice, she said: "Thanks for bringing me here."

"You're welcome, Anne Marie" he said. "I wanted to take you here earlier but...well...things happened."

"I know." Rogue took his hand and held it in hers. They were silent for a while.

"Let me tell you a secret, Anne Marie," David whispered to her.

"What is it?" she asked.

"My real name is Daniel Guerrera," he replied. "I just use David Caine as an alias."

"Really?" She turned towards him slightly. "But you've got a nice real name. Why don't you use it?"

"Why do you still use the name Rogue, Anne Marie?" he asked.

"I save my real name...for the people who are are especially close to me," she replied.

"There you go," David said, kissing her on the cheek. They held each other for several long moments, enjoying one another's presence.

"So what are you going to do after I go back to the school, David?" Rogue wanted to know.

"Hmmm...good question," David said. "I'm probably going to get back to making trouble for Colonel Fury. Or maybe the Corvinus Foundation has some work for me to do in the meantime. I am on retainer with them. By the way, they were impressed with the way you handled yourself back in Hungary."

"I learned it from Logan," Rogue said. "You can't hang out with him for long without picking up a few things."

"You got that right." David said with a smile, remembering the times he worked with Wolverine, with or without the X-Men. "You know...you could come with me, Anne Marie...we could work for the Corvinus Foundation and for Colonel Fury together."

Rogue sat up in and looked him in the eye. "Are you asking me not to go back to the school, David?"

"I'm not going to force you or anything like that..." he explained. "But if you want to stay with me for a while longer, I'd like that."

Rogue didn't answer him right away. She didn't know what to tell him. Part of her just wanted to say yes and stay with him no matter where they wound up going or what they wound up doing. Over the course of time that they'd spent together, Rogue knew that she'd grown close to David. It was just so easy for her to open up to him. When they were just starting to work together during his days with SHIELD, he was the one she often spoke with—aside from the other X-Men or Professor Xavier—about how difficult it was for her because of her power. And when she finally lost her power, he was the one who was there for her to help her discover what life was like being human.

Another part of her, however, knew she couldn't. There was a reason why she gave up her power and it wasn't because she just didn't want to be a mutant anymore. That reason was Bobby.

"You don't have to decide now," David said, breaking into her thoughts. And Rogue realized that he could probably see the answer in her eyes. "I know the school's important to you. You can think about it if you want to but like I said: I'm not going to force you to go with me."

"David..." Rogue tried to say something but she had this awful feeling that if she said anything more, she would start to cry.

He put a finger to her lips. "It's okay, Anne Marie," he told her with a bittersweet smile. "I know." He hugged her and Rogue held onto him tightly. She let the tears come, knowing that he was feeling the same pain that she was but was enduring it for her.

When Rogue was feeling better, they went to their room without a word but holding each other's hand. David was getting into his sleeping bag when Rogue asked him: "David...is your sleeping bag bigger than mine?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Why?"

"Can I...lie down with you tonight?" she found herself asking him.

David looked at her silently for several moments. Rogue looked at him, trying not to avert her gaze, even if she was starting to feel embarrassed for having asked such a thing.

He unzipped the bag and made room for her. "Come on in," he said. When they were finally lying beside each other, they drew closer and held onto one another.

"Good night, Anne Marie," he whispered to her. "Sweet dreams."

"Good night, David," she whispered back. "And thank you."

The following morning, they set out for the final leg of their journey. It took a few more hours but, eventually, they reached the school.

"Looks like we got here ahead of the other students," David said. The driveway was devoid of any other vehicle. Rogue looked out the window. She hoped Bobby wasn't around yet. She dialed the school's number on the cell phone in her hand. She spoke briefly.

"Okay," she told David, "we can go in." She put the phone in her jacket. He put the Jeep in gear and drove up to the mansion's front door. As they were parking, Wolverine and Storm came out.

Rogue got out of the Jeep, ran up to them, and hugged them both. "Oh, God, I missed you both," she told them.

"We missed you too, Rogue," Storm told her. "Welcome back."

"Yeah," Wolverine said. "Welcome back, kid."

David stood by the Jeep, watching them. Her choice was made and he would accept it. To his surprise, he found that the pain in his heart was actually bearable.

Rogue let go of the two senior X-Men and looked back at David. Then she looked at Wolverine and Storm. They understood what she needed. "We'll wait for you inside," Storm said. "Come on, Logan."

"Right," Wolverine said. "Don't take too long. Somebody might see you." He followed Storm back into the mansion. Rogue walked back to where David stood.

"Well...I guess this is it..." she said.

"Uh-huh," he said. "You're home, Anne Marie."

"Thank you, David—for everything. And I mean, everything."

David reached out and took both her hands. "You're welcome, Anne Marie. You've got the keys, right?"

Rogue nodded. "To the apartment and to Fort Caine." She laughed softly and smiled at him.

"And the package—?"

"In my backpack."

David looked at her for a long while. "You know," he began, "part of me says I should get back inside the Jeep and go..."

"But...?" Rogue prompted him.

"Well, see, I was trying to think of a way to tell you something in a real cool Casablanca kind of way," he went on, "but the more I think about it, I figure that straight up is the way I should do it."

"What is it you want to tell me?" Rogue asked.

David paused and took a breath. Then he moved closer to her, not caring if Bobby could see them or whatever else was going on around them. He looked at her, taking in the sight of her face—her green eyes, her pixie nose (Rogue had blushed the first time he described her nose that way), her warm lips. He knew that this would be, quite possibly, the last time they would ever be this close.

"Anne Marie, I..." he started to say. Rogue stopped him by putting a finger to his lips.

"Daniel, it's okay," she told him, using his real name. "I know..." Then she kissed him, on the lips this time. He kissed her back. For how long they stood there locked in their last kiss, they didn't know. But they finally had to come up for air.

"This isn't forever, right?" David asked her. "I mean..."

"It's not," Rogue told him. "I promise." She held out her little finger to him with a smile. Smiling right back, he entwined his little finger with hers.

"Okay." He kissed her on the cheek. "Get inside. Someone might come by and get the wrong idea and turn me into a snowman."

Rogue kissed him on the cheek and picked up her backpack. She gave him a little wave and then entered the mansion. David watched until she was out of his line of sight and then went around to the driver's side of the Jeep.

"She's not easy to forget, is she?" someone asked him. It was Wolverine.

"No, sir, she isn't," he said. "Honestly, I don't think I ever will, Commander Logan."

"Hey—none of that Commander Logan jazz, all right?" Wolverine told him. "You aren't with SHIELD anymore ."

"Sorry about that, Logan."

"Much better." Wolverine took out a cigar and lit it. "You know, you can stay here for a while, if you want."

David thought about that for a while. "Thanks for the invitation, Logan, but I can't. Colonel Fury probably has something for me to do."

"Suit yourself." Wolverine gestured towards the Jeep. "Does that thing still have gas?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, let's go and get a cup of coffee somewhere while the rest of the kids ain't here yet. Between you and me, no one in this school knows how to make good coffee."

"Is that right? Well, you're on." David got in the Jeep and waited for Wolverine to board the vehicle. He rolled the windows down so that his companion could smoke freely. Before he turned on the engine, he took one more look at the mansion.

"She's home," he said. "With her family."

"Uh-huh," Wolverine said. "Thanks for taking care of her."

"No problem," David said. "It was my pleasure."

"I'm sure it was. Now let's go and you can tell me all about it over a good cup of joe."

David laughed and started the engine. The Jeep pulled away from the mansion as he bid Rogue a silent farewell, thinking to himself, _It's not forever anyway._


End file.
